A typical digital camera focuses an optical image of a scene onto an image sensor, which samples the optical image to generate an electronic representation of the scene. The electronic representation is then processed and stored as a digital photograph. Many digital cameras and other hand-held devices such as smart phones implement a software-based image processing pipeline for processing the raw data captured by the image sensor to generate the digital photograph.
As digital cameras and other consumer electronic devices become more complex, certain aspects of the image processing pipeline may become more configurable. Additionally, the availability of more and more filters means that the executable code for the image processing pipeline may grow quite large and complex. At the same time, the processing capacity of chips used in digital cameras and other hand-held devices may be limited.
As such, there is a need for addressing issues associated with the image processing pipeline for digital cameras and other hand-held devices and/or other related issues associated with the prior art.